Frogs And Frills For Me

Olivia's 1st Birthday Party

2011-06-24T17:16:00.000-07:00

So, the day has finally arrived. For months I have been planning a celebration for my youngest daughter's 1st birthday. I must say that for all the time, energy, and hard work that I put into this party it seemed to fly by so fast. I know my family is certainly happy it is finally over. No more strawberry crafts and decoration piled up around the house. :) Well here are the pictures.

These are the cute cake pops. They turned out so cute! Thanks for all the help mom:)

So my mom warned me about using bettercream instead of buttercream under the fondant. She was right as always. It didn't hold up well and it began to melt. So she had a saggy cake, but oh well.

A big thank you must go out to dimpleprints for the darling printable package. It is what truly made the party so unique!

I made strawberry garland out of felt, black puffy paint and some ribbon. It turned out really cute.

Homemade strawberry jam for the adult party favors.

The drink station. I made a very yummy strawberry lemonade :)

Grandma made the cute dress and ruffled bottom pant outfit. She couldn't wait to get into that cake! I will have to post the rest of the picks later.

In the end the party was a huge success! I got so many of my ideas from different blogs and I want to be sure to mention them all!

Here I go:

idoinvitationsbymichelle.blogspot.com

dimpleprints.com

gigglesgalorenmore.blogspot.com

amandaparkerandfamily.blogspot.com

bakerella.com

celebrationsathomeblog.com/

karaspartyideas.blogspot.com

pisforparty.blogspot.com

yourhomebasedmom.com

I know I'm missing a few, but I will try to remember them :)

Super Bowl Party!!

2011-02-12T21:14:00.000-08:00

So last Sunday was the Super Bowl, and for the last several years we have been hosting a Super Bowl Party for the members of our fantasy football league. Now it is football, and football does involve a lot of men watching tv. So it would be really easy for me to as my husband says "cheese it up" too much. It is a very fine line between cool football party and cheesy kiddie football party. What I have found works best is a few decorations ( usually items from the two teams playing), a lot of food, and some very well picked games.

First for the decorations. This year I hung a few football cutouts on the light over the dining room table. The I made a Super Bowl Centerpiece. I ordered pom poms in each of the teams colors. I think they were about $1.50 each ($3 total). I also ordered the Super Bowl pennant ($3) for this year along with mylar balloons ($6 total) for each team. I gathered some things from around the house ( yellow bucket, my son's fox sports football robot, yellow shredded paper, tape, Styrofoam and dowel rod) to use. I stuffed the bucket with the foam, covered it with the shredded paper. Then I taped the pennant to the dowel rod and pushed it into the foam, and I tied the balloons to the pom poms, and stuck them into the foam. After I had everything placed where I wanted it in the foam I placed the robot in the middle and draped some football beads over it. In the end I was in it for about $16 with s/h.

I used a vinyl "grass" table cloth on the dinning room table, and I placed the food in "football" themed trays and serving dishes. I also made a few "team items" using team colors and little tags with team logos. I dipped pretzel rods in yellow chocolate and sprinkled some with black sprinkles and some with green. I put them in bags and tied a ribbon and tag to them. I also made football pops and football helmet pops out of chocolate for the kids to have. The last "football" food item I made was sugar cookies. I made helmets and footballs. I iced the helmets black and green for team colors. I don't think I have a picture of them, but they were cute. I really don't have any great pictures, because I forgot to take any before the party started. I hurried and snapped a few when I remembered.

Now for the fun stuff! Games! Ok, I'm sure you are thinking this is a little crazy, but I think this is what my guests love most about my parties. Now don"t get me wrong, these are still mostly guys we are talking about. So I revolve my "games" around what these boys love best: taking a little risk, and proving how much they know about sports!
This year we did the football squares again. We play this every year. It's great because you can know absolutely nothing about football and still win. What we did different this year was adding different entry price games. We had a 25 square game at $5 a square, 100 square game at $3 a square, and a 100 square game for .50 cents a square. It made it easy for everyone to enter. Who doesn't have .50 cents to risk? But I try to think of everyone when having a party, and some folks just might not want to pay to play. Not a problem. Before the big day I went out around town and picked up numerous little football related items. I tend to get a lot of MU Tiger and Chiefs items just because those are our local college and pro teams. I picked up some nice (dishwasher safe) super bowl XLV cups at party city for .99 cents each, and they also had a lot of Chiefs stuff (antenna helmet, decals, can kuzzies, playing cards,etc.) I think I spent about $35 in total on prizes, but I had a lot of stuff. So I had a huge bucket full of prizes to had out to my winners. I ended up with some left over that I can use for next years winners.
Winners of what you say? Well I printed out a list of super bowl trivia questions and answers. During the commercials I would walk around and offer trivia questions. Whoever answered correctly first got to pick a prize. You would be surprised at how much people enjoy this. Especially the men who think they know it all when it comes to football :) I also had a prop questionnaire for guest to fill out. All they had to do was answer about ten questions on the game. For example: Who would win the coin toss? Would the first score of the game be a touchdown. field goal, or safety? and so on. The tie breaker at the end was total points scored. I had a helper watch the game for all the answers, and the people who had the most correct won prizes out of the bucket. Everyone had a great time participating in the games!

So onto the invitations and food. I used punchbowl.com for my invitations. The reason I chose to use this is simple: 1.) people actually RSVP when they can use their email 2.) it offers a "potluck" list that people can choose food to bring from a list or add their item to the list. When planning a party one of the most important things to know is how many guests you can expect, and for me the potluck option is a wonderful tool that helps you know what people are bringing and avoid duplicates. It's never good when half of the guests show up with chip and the other bring pop. This helps you list ideas that you think would be good and gives people the option of bringing something else if they so choose. I usually provide food for my parties, but the super bowl is my one exception. We have so many people come, so it's so nice to have people help out. plus it helps me be able to spend money on things like the prizes and so on.

DimplePrints Giveaway!

2011-02-12T19:09:00.000-08:00

One of my most favorite party designers is having a giveaway! She is having a Blog Re-Launch Party, and she is giving away a $50 gift certificate to her Etsy shop! Visit her blog at http://www.dimpleprints.com/ to enter!

Landon's Winnie The Pooh 2nd Birthday Pictures

2011-01-22T14:35:00.000-08:00

Here are the pictures of my son Landon's 2nd birthday. Nothing spectacular really as far as decorations go. The cake really took the show. It took us (me & my mother) many hours to complete it. I must say it was so worth it. The honey pot turned out just as I had planned, and it was so cute! And in case you couldn't tell by the photos my son absolutely loved it!

Landon Rubber Ducky 1st Birthday Pictures (4 yrs ago)

2011-01-22T11:52:00.000-08:00

So here are some pictures from my son Landon's 1st birthday from a few years back. I made a lot of the decorations, because at the time there was very little in the way of duck merchandise for a birthday party. I think that it ended up pretty cute. I used some things I found in the baby shower section of a party store. My mother helped with the cake. We ended up using a duck pan that we rented from our local cake shop. We tried to make it look like the duck was taking a bath. The bar of soap was made out of fondant.

MORE PICTURES FROM MARIO PARTY

2011-01-18T13:17:00.000-08:00

MORE PICS FROM THE SUPER MARIO BROS BIRTHDAY PARTY

2011-01-18T12:06:00.000-08:00

So here are a few more pictures taken at the party. I hope this helps anyone who wants to throw a great party that will be remembered. I just wanted to show that it can be done and the costs can be kept down too.

Now that I have a lot of the basics I need my future parties will be even less expensive. I hope to have my daughters 1st birthday party on here before long. I may put the details on here as I go along instead of after it is over.

My next party is the Super Bowl Party. Every year we host a Super Bowl party for our friends and for the members of our fantasy football league. I really enjoy having it. It gets better every year! I save everything from year to year and always add new things, so I'm working on that right now.

I hope you enjoy the pictures, and it helps give you some ideas!

Andrea

The New Super Mario Bros Birthday Party!

2011-01-17T20:20:00.000-08:00

So, my fourth child turned four this month. He really wanted to have a Super Mario Bros party, and well that's what he got! I started planning back in September. I searched numerous websites looking for ideas. When I found something I liked I would print out a picture and make a note in my folder on the website I got the idea from and my additional thoughts about the idea. I had a pretty thick folder by December!

My main goal was to have a party that knocked it out of the park, but was easy on the wallet as well. The easiest way to do this was by being creative and making a lot of the things myself. I thought it might be helpful to make a list of the things I made and what it cost.

So first, lets talk sweets! I made cupcakes, chocolate Mario mustache pops, sugar cookies, and a cake. To be honest, we didn't need the cake but my husband really felt like we should have one. The night before the party I slapped one together. I had made a super Mario cake for my nephew almost a year ago, so I just kind of went off of that. I used my sisters chess set for the characters to put around the cake. I had most of the fondant I needed so it really didn't cost me anything other than the cake mixes.

I made the sugar cookies about a week early and kept them in an airtight container. Again, I had everything I needed on hand so no additional cost there. I had to use a skull cookie cutter for the 1up mushrooms. They were the worst sugar cookies I have made. I had problems with my never-fail recipe. Go figure! But it was no big deal in the end. They still tasted great, and the kids loved them.

I made the cupcakes a week early, and I put them in the freezer. On the morning of the party I sat them out and let them thaw a little before frosting them. I used some butter creme frosting my mother had made and had extra of. My mother helped me with the toppers and cupcake wrappers. She has a cricut, so she used the cupcake cartridge to cut them out. The paper was purchased at Hobby Lobby when it was on sale for 50% off. It was about .15 cents a sheet. I used the paper for the pennant banners, his name banner, decorative hangings, and cupcake wrappers. I bought 28 sheets for a little over $4. The toppers were made by using images I downloaded. http://kotaku.com/5391337/hi+res-new-super-mario-bros-wii-art-at-your-disposal/gallery/ I used a 2 inch punch to make the background on solid color paper (that I already had), and a 1 3/4 inch punch to cut out the pictures I printed out of the characters. I bought a package of lollipop sticks and plastic wraps at walmart for $2. I used the plastic sticks for the cupcake toppers, and I used the wrappers for the chocolate mustaches.

For the chocolate mustache pops I had to order a mold from amazon. It cost $5 with the shipping. The chocolate was purchased at walmart for a little under $3. I used the plastic wraps that came with the sticks I bought for cupcake toppers to wrap them. I chose a longer lollipop stick I found at hobby lobby ($2) for the mustaches, because I wanted the kids to be able to hold them up to their face. I tied them with green curling ribbon.

Now for the decorations that I made. The first thing I made was a name banner. I used my mom's cricut to cut out large circles in solid colored paper. Then we cut out smaller circles in the striped paper I purchased. I also cut a some circles I had made on my computer using the images I downloaded that said "Happy 4th Birthday." Then we cut out the letters of my sons name in red using the cricut. I cut out several extra circles in solid colors and the striped paper to use for hanging decorations. I bought 2 spools of ribbon from the clearance section at HL for $1.50 each. I used the ribbon to string the banner together. I also took some red tulle and ribbon I had to use in between the letters. The rest ribbon was used with other ribbon I had to go on the jars of candy on the candy buffet.

I also cut out two pennant banners from my striped paper using the cricut. Then I made the hanging decorations out of the extra circles that I cut. I printed out the character, then I cut them out and mounted them on the circles. I also printed out characters that I just cut out and taped on to the left over long lollipop sticks.

Everything was printed on white card stock. I paid $4 for a very large package, and I have plenty left over for my daughters party! I also bought a package of full sheet labels that I used to print out my labels my candy bags and "thank you" boxes. I also printed out little candy bar wrappers. That stuff is not cheap, so I used it sparingly. It was $11 for 25 sheets. Once again I have plenty left over for the next party. I just picked out the round 2 inch label template, and put my design in it and printed it out. Then I used a 2 inch punch to cut the stickers out. Very easy.

Now, I really think that the things that gave the party a big wow factor were probably the easiest and cheapest things to make! The tissue poms were really neat looking. I found them on Martha Stewart's website. I bought 5 colors of tissue paper from walmart for $1.50 each ($7.25 total). There is enough paper to make two of every color in a pack, but I only made one of each. I hung them from fishing line, and it looked like they were just floating in the air.

The other big wow factor that was very inexpensive was the balloon towers. I took two pieces of my husbands foam from work and cut them into 9x9 inch squares (about 3 inches thick). I covered them in red masking tape so I didn't have foam balls everywhere. Then I took a pole that I unscrewed off of a mop and a broom and I screwed it down into the center of the foam. This was the base for my balloon towers. The rest was as simple as blowing up balloons, tying them together and twisting them around the pole. When I got to the top I used a little balloon pump (HL $1.75) to fill up the two mylar balloons I had purchased from Celebrate.com ($5) and taped them to the top. The balloons were $1.25 a package and I had 5 different colors ($6.25 total).

Expenses so far:

Paper (28 sheets)- $4.00

Lollipop stick & wrap pkg- $2.00

Chocolate mustache mold- $5.00

Chocolate Melts- $3.00

Long lollipop sticks- $2.00

Ribbon (2 spools)- $3.00

Card Stock- $4.00

Sticker Paper (labels)-$11.00

Tissue Paper Poms- $7.25

Balloon Towers-$11.25

Total: $52.50

Ok here is a list of the other party paper products I purchased:

From the dollar store-

red paper plates $3

yellow cups $3

orange plastic utensils $3

yellow and blue plastic square tubs-$2

From Walmart-

orange & green paper sacks- $3

red & blue boxes-$3

multi-colored shreaded paper- $1

From Celebrate.com-

napkins (2 pkgs)- $6

Total: $24.00

I also printed these cute little question boxes. I did make them a little bigger than what they were when I found them. I will try to find the link to them. I cut them out, taped them together and put gold chocolate coins in them. Very cute! I bought the coins at Walmart after Christmas. They were in a little mesh bag. They were marked down to .25 cents a bag. I bought 12 bags for $4.
Now for the candy buffet. Try to look around your home and find as many glass containers as you can. I used triffle dishes, vases, cannisters, etc. However, if you don't have anything that would work there is the option of buying some containers. I ended up purchasing a few extras, because I didn't have enough to hold all the candy I had bought. I searched high and low for the best price and found that Walmart was almost unbeatable in price. They sell the 2 gal glass jar with lid for $9.98, 1 gal glass jar for 6.98, and the 1/2 gal jar for 4.98. I didnt use any of the 2 gal jars. They were just too big. Hobby Lobby can have a good price too if you can catch one of their 50% of glass sales. I bought 3 of the 1 gal jars and 2 of the 1/2 gal jars to go with what I already had. I spent just over $30. I know that seems like a lot, but I knew I would get good use out of them. Being the mother of five children I throw a lot of parties so I plan on using them quite a bit!

I printed out cute little sign for each jar. I gave a character to each candy. For example: Princess Peach's Pixie Sticks, Toad's Twizzlers and so on.

That brings me to the candy! I started planning this party in September, so by the time halloween rolled around I knew I neede to stock up on candy. The morning after halloween I went up to Walmart and started filling my cart. I bought candy that was not packaged in halloween wrappers. I bought inexpensive cany that I could get alot of for a little price. My picks were: twizzlers, pixie sticks, dum dums, starbursts, and skittles. Then after Christmas I went back to Walmart and bought the red & green m&ms, several packages of ring pops, gold coins, kisses, and a few large red & green swirly suckers. I spent about $35 in all. Sounds like a lot, but it takes a lot to fill up those jars. Not to mention that there was plenty left over for me to have several more parties without having to spen anymore money on it. I will, however, switch out the red & green m&m's for future parties. It just so happened that red & green went well with our theme.

Candy Buffet expensences:

Jars- $30

Candy- $35
Total: $65.00

My last BIG expense was the standup Mario. It was about $50 after I paid for shipping. Crazy, I know. But, my son just LOVED it! And it really added to the party decor. The way I justified it to my husband was that I might be able to sell it after the party was over on craigslist. We will have to see about that.

Grand Total:

$192.50

All in all it was a GREAT party! Just to see the look on my sons face made it worth it! I have already been working on my daughters 1St birthday that is coming up in May. Can't wait!

MORE PICTURES TO COME! DON'T FORGET TO CHECK THEM OUT.